The expanding constant is a measure of graph connectivity that is important for certain applications. This paper discusses the mathematical foundations for the construction of Winnie Li's graphs and for the proof that Winnie Li's graphs are Ramanujan. The paper also establishes the implications of the Ramanujan property for the expanding constant. / Master of Science

L’utilisation de l’algèbre pour résoudre des problèmes de graphes a conduit au développement de trois branches : théorie spectrale des graphes, géométrie et combinatoire des groupes et études des invariants de graphes. La notion de graphe d’expansions (invariant de graphes) est relativement récente, elle a été développée afin d’étudier la robustesse des réseaux de télécommunication. Il s’avère que la construction de familles infinies de graphes expanseurs est un problème difficile. Cette thèse traite principalement de la construction de nouvelles familles de tels graphes. Les graphes expanseurs possèdent des nombreuses applications en informatique, notamment dans la construction de certains algorithmes, en théorie de la complexité, sur les marches aléatoires (random walk), etc. En informatique théorique, ils sont utilisés pour construire des familles de codes correcteurs d’erreur. Comme nous l’avons déjà vu les familles d’expanseurs sont difficiles à construire. La plupart des constructions s'appuient sur des techniques algébriques complexes, principalement en utilisant des graphes de Cayley et des produit Zig-Zag. Dans cette thèse, nous présentons une nouvelle méthode de construction de familles infinies d’expanseurs en utilisant les G-graphes. Ceux-ci sont en quelque sorte une généralisation des graphes de Cayley. Plusieurs nouvelles familles infinies d’expanseurs sont construites, notamment la première famille d’expanseurs irréguliers. / Applying algebraic and combinatorics techniques to solve graph problems leads to the birthof algebraic and combinatorial graph theory. This thesis deals mainly with a crossroads questbetween the two theories, that is, the problem of constructing infinite families of expandergraphs.From a combinatorial point of view, expander graphs are sparse graphs that have strongconnectivity properties. Expanders constructions have found extensive applications in bothpure and applied mathematics. Although expanders exist in great abundance, yet their explicitconstructions, which are very desirable for applications, are in general a hard task. Mostconstructions use deep algebraic and combinatorial approaches. Following the huge amountof research published in this direction, mainly through Cayley graphs and the Zig-Zagproduct, we choose to investigate this problem from a new perspective; namely by usingG-graphs theory and spectral hypergraph theory as well as some other techniques. G-graphsare like Cayley graphs defined from groups, but they correspond to an alternative construction.The reason that stands behind our choice is first a notable identifiable link between thesetwo classes of graphs that we prove. This relation is employed significantly to get many newresults. Another reason is the general form of G-graphs, that gives us the intuition that theymust have in many cases such as the relatively high connectivity property.The adopted methodology in this thesis leads to the identification of various approaches forconstructing an infinite family of expander graphs. The effectiveness of our techniques isillustrated by presenting new infinite expander families of Cayley and G-graphs on certaingroups. Also, since expanders stand in no single stem of graph theory, this brings us toinvestigate several closely related threads from a new angle. For instance, we obtain newresults concerning the computation of spectra of certain Cayley and G-graphs, and theconstruction of several new infinite classes of integral and Hamiltonian Cayley graphs.